Have you ever watched someone reading a newspaper? They seem to have un-connected thoughts sandwiched between limited conversation and editorial comment on what they just read.
The rattle and crinkle the of paper as the page is turned encourages a glance at the advertisements, which in turn disconnects from the flow of information.
It’s a lot like watching a television newscast. You have to watch TV news consecutively, not concurrently and that can lead to a mental disconnect.
Reading a book is different. The concentration is different. It’s focused, generally un-interrupted and confined to the mind of the reader.
I like watching people read a book. Their minds are entrapped in the excitement of the story. If you could see their mental aura it would be dancing like a Broadway marquee. There are little or no interruptions accept for the page turning and occasional “gaze” into the distance to mentally digest a special phrase or a surprise element the author has placed in a strategic chapter of the book.
Words often transcend their meaning. Within the profound phrases and paragraphs of truth or fictional empathetic excitement there is energy to each word or phrase. It is beyond the sequential and descriptive placement of words into a thought of understanding. Therein lies the skill of the author.
When the voice is activated, however, there is a new awareness, a new understanding.
Many of the native peoples of the world had no written language. They understood the power of repetition and memory and passed their history from generation to generation on the medium of the breath.
Powerful!
The voice gives a meaning above, below and within the words as it is spoken. The voice contributes to words with nuance, spirit, emotion, humor and reverence. Modern story telling has forgotten pauses, it has forgotten how to use silence in understanding the inherent drama of the story and it has lost the peaceful utterance of calm dialogue.
I am tired of watching shouting matches on television programs disguised as news programs. Shouting is a misuse of the voice in the alleged dissemination of information.
1 comment:
I totally agree with you and I am amazed that the general public is enamored with sensationalist programming disguised as news? Do you think the Blackberry, I-Phone, or Driod Phone has anything to do with it? Or is it that we as a society have become too disconnected to care about confirming the validity of the news that comes to us each second of the day? There was a time when we had only our local news (paper, radio and television) to rely upon. We grew to learn and trust the people reporting and delivering the news to us and were seldom disappointed or disillusioned with this method. This trust, or assumption thereof, was derived not only from the factual reports presented each day, but from a connective relationship that we as an audience enjoyed and cherished from good journalist who, day after day, night after night, came into our homes, offices, places of work, and airwaves in a way and manner that commanded attention and respect. You should know, you are one, and it is quite sad the aforementioned method is quickly disappearing from mainstream America.
It is clear that shouting and propaganda have become the information opiate for the masses. Thank you for your comments today, as they were thought provoking.
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